UCI checked for motors at cyclocross worlds

Dutch newspaper Het Nieuwsblad is reporting that the UCI checked riders’ bikes for motors at the world cyclocross championships last weekend.

UCI officials reportedly removed the seatposts of the top three riders in each race and used a camera to search for the presence of mechanical doping inside the frames.

The move comes just weeks after disgraced Italian cyclist Danilo Di Luca claimed in a TV interview that such technology has existed for many years. Back in 2010 Fabian Cancellara was accused of having mechanical assistance to win the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

Samuel Sanchez confirms BMC deal is for one year

Sammy Sanchez has confirmed with Italian website BiciCiclismo that his newly-signed contract with BMC is for a single year.

Sanchez said in the interview that negotiations for his postition started less than a week ago and that the deal was struck quickly once Jim Ochowicz, Cadel Evans and sports director Yvon Ledanois had given their approval.

“Initially it’s a year-long contract, but the important thing is that I’m doing what I like,” Sanchez told BiciCiclismo. “I’m racing to enjoy myself and now I will be able to do it with a team that is amazingly well-organised.”

Ladies Tour of Qatar starts today

The first big race of the UCI elite women’s road calendar starts today in Doha: the Ladies Tour of Qatar. Raced over four stages in and around Doha the race (like the men’s equivalent) is famous for its flat parcours and strong winds.

Last year’s edition was won by sprinter Kirsten Wild (Giant-Shimano), who also won in 2009 and 2010. Wild will go into the race as one of the big favourites, alongside Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle Honda) and last year’s runner up Chloe Hosking (Hitech Products).

Click here for the startlist, click here for the official website and click here for a piece about Aussie sprinter Chloe Hosking and how she’s focused on this race after losing the leader’s jersey in last year’s race.

Jayco Herald Sun Tour starts tomorrow

The 2014 Jayco Herald Sun Tour kicks off tomorrow in it’s first year back as a UCI classified race. After a twilight prologue on Melbourne’s Southbank tomorrow evening the riders take on four road stages, concluding with the traditional Arthurs Seat multi-pass loop on Sunday.

Three WorldTour teams will be in attendance — Orica-GreenEDGE, Garmin-Sharp and Cannondale — as will Australia’s only ProConti team Drapac and a handful of Continental teams.

There will also be a number of national squads in attendance, including two from Australia (one is an U23 squad), one from New Zealand and one from Great Britain.

For a full startlist click here. For more information about the course, click here. And to read a piece about how Nathan Haas will lead Garmin-Sharp after his great Tour Down Under, click here.

No Sagan/Alonso deal, says Bettini

Reports that Peter Sagan will join Fernando Alonso’s new team in 2015 for €3.3 million are overblown, according to former Italian national coach Paolo Bettini who is now working for Alonso.

“It seems that his manager exaggerated. If someone is offering that amount of money I don’t see why he’s waiting to sign,” Bettini, who started with Alonso in January, told Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport. “We haven’t talk about this, but with Alonso I was clear: with that amount of money we can sign three riders, one to stay on his wheel and make him lose, and two to win.”

Sagan has been with Cannondale since turning pro in 2010 but his contract runs out at the end of this season. Last week tuttobici.com reported that Bettini had confirmed a €3.3 million ($4.45 million) deal with Sagan for the next two seasons.

The same teams will line up for Roma Maxima the next day, with the exception of Omega Pharma-QuickStep and Tinkoff-Saxo, while Ag2r-La Mondiale will be in attendance with last year’s winner Blel Kadri.

The many muds of Hoogerheide

Here at CyclingTips we’re big fans of the work of photographers Iri Greco and Jim Fryer. The pair have put together a great album of shots from the cyclocross world championships over the weekend, all focused on how muddy the course was and the effect that had on the races. Check out their gallery over at VeloNews here.

Shimano introduces sports camera with live streaming capabilities

Shimano has entered the already-crowded sports camera market with its CM-1000 camera, announced yesterday, which uses WiFi and ANT+ to connect with smartphones, ANT+ compatible devices (such as power meters or heart-rate monitors) and even Shimano’s new Di2 wireless transmitter.

The device is smaller than a pack of playing cards and weighs in at just 86 grams, which includes the battery and lens cover.

The camera can pair with a custom iOS or Android smartphone app to allow live viewing, video playback and remote camera adjustments. The CM-1000 is believed to be available from May 2014 for US$300.

Click here to see a sample video shot with the new camera. Click here for more photos of the camera. Click here for the product’s webpage. Click here to read more at VeloNews.

The Hovenring

Now here’s how you separate cyclists and other road users:

It’s called the Hovenring and it’s in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. Check out the official website for more info and click here to see some photos of the impressive structure.

The Rocacorba Recap

And finally this morning, here are a few things you might have missed:

Mechanical doping? Motors? Surely these modern day frames are far too small to house anything adequate enough to provide any real advantage.

velocite

Given the power of today’s Li-ion batteries I think it’s within the bounds of possibility to deliver a significant wattage out of a frame mounted motor and drive – although it was some kind omission in the youtube video posted above not to mention the battery location. But has anyone ever actually seen one of these things? And even if they have getting away with using one in a race would seem like wishful thinking.

jules

cyclists don’t make all that much power, even a 30w motor would be a big advantage. you’d need big balls to fit one though – imagine the fallout of being caught

Dave

I could definitely see it being an advantage (let’s temporarily ignore the slightly detrimental effect of the rider and/or team being kicked out of the sport if they got caught) for shorter-format races such as cyclo-cross, MTB Eliminator and individual/team time trials on the road.

Road cycling would be a little different, the battery weight being too heavy to provide a consistent boost over a whole ride. To make it work you’d need to work out a decent balancing point where the battery is light enough to not be a huge impost when it’s not switched on, but also heavy enough to store up enough energy to be worth bringing along.

A Lithium-Polymer battery has a specific energy of about 165 W.h/kg or 600 kJ/kg. Basically this means that the weight of battery (the motor assembly itself is extra) required to give you 30 W for an hour is ~180g, 100W for an hour would be ~610g. The energy density of a Li-Poly battery is 300 W.h/L, with the advantage that they can be formed to whatever shape is desired – you would get a 200 W.h battery into a medium-sized bidon.

Assuming that the motor assembly would be about 300g extra, I could have quite happily coped with an extra kilogram of total weight when I did the Bupa Challenge a couple of weeks ago. That would have provided ~120 W.h of energy, enough to give two hours worth of a 60 W boost on the uphill sections.

Peter

They do exist and I have seen one in person. It was installed on a carbon Carrera bike with very oversized tubes. There was a button to engage the motor embedded in the hood of a Di2 shifter. Battery was housed in a bottle type box. The whole set up was not too clean and the bike felt like it was about 20lbs. I couldn’t imagine being a pro and getting caught red handed with something like that…

That HovenRing is fantastic, wonderful. Big, busy roundabouts can be fraught at any time but on a wet night.. But application of the ‘hovering’ principle would not be restricted to roundabouts – it could work at any difficult intersection. Turning right out of Springvale Road into Centre Road in Melbourne’s South East is not a relaxed exercise.

Dave

It’s worth noting that the intersection avoided in Eindhoven isn’t actually a roundabout, it’s only the cycle facility above which is.